Establishing trust within interprofessional teams with a novel simulation activity in the pediatric clerkship

Interprofessional trust is essential for effective team-based care. Medical students are transient members of clinical teams during clerkship rotations and there may be limited focus on developing competency in interprofessional collaboration. Within a pediatric clerkship rotation, we developed a novel simulation activity involving an interprofessional conflict, aiming to foster trusting interprofessional relationships. Active participants included a nurse educator and a medical student participant, with additional students using a checklist to actively observe. The debrief focused on teaching points related to interprofessional competencies and conflict resolution. Students completed a written evaluation immediately following the simulation. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze Likert-type scale questions. Conventional content analysis was used to analyze open-ended responses. Two hundred and fourteen students participated in the simulation between June 2018-June 2019. Most students indicated that the simulation was effective (86%) and improved their confidence to constructively manage disagreements about patient care (88%). Students described anticipated changes in practice including developing their role on the interprofessional team as a medical student, developing a shared mental model, and establishing a shared goal. Our findings suggest that simulation-based learning may present an opportunity for developing interprofessional trust in academic health centers.